As I'm listening to the audiobook version of TOT (FINALLY out on Audible.com, and blessed with Mr. Briggs as its reader), a question came to mind that never occurred when I was reading the book.

I know, I know, I should have posted it to the TOT discussion group, but we're discussing Pyramids now so I wouldn't want to interrupt the discussion flow. Besides, this is more of an opinion oriented than anything else. And if it's been discussed, sorry.

Anyway, during one of the meetings of the Auditors, Lady Lejune (sp.) marvels at the complexity of the female human body, which, she perceives, has eight orifices, of which one serves no apparent purpose.

Now, does one's interpretation of what that particular orifice may be signify what kind of person they are of the vulgarity of their thought processes? I hope not, because what complicates the matter is that LL understands the function of each orifice through personal experience--with one obvious exception. There seem to be only two possible choices here. Would it be much safer to guess that she is referring to the belly button?

J-I-B

Last edited by raisindot on Thu Jan 07, 2010 8:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

But yes, you're probably right - the Auditors did go for accuracy and so she will have ended up (presumably) with a fully functioning female body with a bit that she'd never used and therefore may not have understood the purpose of.

Phew!

“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.” – Blaise Pascal

flash: gleam or glow intermittently; "The lights were flashing" a rapid change in brightness; a brief spark or flash emit or reflect light in a flickering manner; "Does a constellation twinkle more brightly than a single star?" sparkle: merriment expressed by a brightness or gleam or animation of countenance; "he had a sparkle in his eye"; "there's a perpetual twinkle in his eyes"

“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.” – Blaise Pascal

poohcarrot wrote:If LL never ate anything, she never went to the toilet, so shouldn't she have said 3 orifices?

I think she had eaten something by that time, and therefore probably had used the execreting orifices, since she was an experimenter and the full biological purpose of 7 of the 8 could be ascertained without assistance.

I don't count the eyes, either, so it would be (returning to quaint euphemismland)

2 ears
2 nostrils
1 mouth
1 weehole
1 bum
1 twinkle

Even substituting the eyes out, Pooh is right that adding the he belly button would make 9, not 8.

Since the Auditors couldn't understand how humans were so easily able to reproduce themselves, this implies that they didn't understand the concept and mechanics of shagging.

Thefore, unless Discworldian humans have another orifice that Earth humans don't, we must, by deductive logic, assume she was referring to the twinkle!

(If I ever got to speak with the man again, this is the question I'd ask him, if only to elicit either a laugh or a condescending glare)